Massive quake sparks panic

DEVASTATION: SEVERAL KILLED, INJURED AS DESTROYED BUILDINGS LEFT PEOPLE BURIED IN RUBBLE

A dozen rescuers used an excavator to dig through debris in search of victims.

Seven people died and some 150 were injured in Albania after the strongest earthquake in decades rocked the Balkan country early yesterday, destroying buildings and burying victims in rubble.

The epicentre of the 6.4 magnitude quake was about 34km northwest of the capital Tirana, at a depth of 10km, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.

“We have victims,” Prime Minister Edi Rama tweeted. “We are working to do everything possible in the affected areas.”

The quake struck at 3.54am and sent panicked residents running out onto the streets of Tirana,

with people huddling in the open, an AFP correspondent said.

The worst damage appeared to be around the coastal town of Durres. The quake was the strongest to hit this region since 1926, Albanian seismologist Rrapo Ormeni told local television.

Three bodies were pulled from the ruins of damaged buildings in the port town, where a three-story hotel collapsed and other buildings were damaged, according to the defence ministry.

The bodies of a man and a woman were uncovered in rubble in the nearby town of Thumane, the ministry said. A man in his 50s died after he jumped out of his building in panic in the town of Kurbin, the defence ministry said.

Some 300 armed forces personnel have rushed to Durres and Thumane for rescue operations, where “people were trapped under the ruins”, defence ministry spokesperson Albana Qahajaj said.

In Thumane, around a dozen rescuers used an excavator to dig

People were trapped under the ruins

through a mountain of debris in search of possible victims.

At least 150 people with injuries have sought first aid in Tirana and Durres, Health Minister

Ogerta Manasterliu said.

In Thumane, soldiers, rescuers and families were sifting through the rubble of a collapsed five-storey building as cries of people trapped under debris were heard.

The tremors were felt across the Balkan region, from Sarajevo to Bosnia and even in the Serbian city of Novi Sad. – AFP

Picture: AFP AFTERMATH. Emergency workers clear debris at a damaged building in Thumane, northwest of capital Tirana, after an earthquake hit Albania, yesterday. Seven people died and some 150 were injured.